A partnership between the California Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Administration and the Bureau of Land Management will soon provide traffic safety along Highway 68 and better access to Fort Ord National Monument.

The BLM announced today that highway improvements between Torero Drive and San Benancio Road will begin this month as federal and state officials prepare to relocate a current access point away from the Toro Park Estates.

Monument visitors had been parking in an unimproved area along Highway 68. The new parking area, called Badger Hills, will be designed to provide safer access.

“We are excited to be working on this project with our partners,” said Eric Morgan, BLM’s Fort Ord National Monument manager. “Use of the current access point near Toro Park Estates was creating traffic safety issues and visitors were impacting the residents living near Espada Drive,” Morgan said.

Badger Hills is the second parking area to be relocated along the southeastern margin of the former Fort Ord. The first was Creekside Terrace Trailhead near the Reservation Road and Portola Road intersection.

“Although Badger Hills will be an important step in reducing existing traffic pressures along Highway 68, our primary interest in developing new public access opportunities is really along the northern and western margins of Fort Ord National Monument,” Morgan said.

“We want to bring most of our Monument visitors through Seaside and Marina where these visitors can contribute to the local eco-tourism economies and avoid contributing to highway congestion along Highway 68,” Morgan explained.